AUDIO INTERVIEW

Bougainville Blue is a recently published novel set during the island’s civil war. Author Brian Darcey tells JEREMY ROSE he had finished the book before the publication of Lloyd’s Jones phenomenally successful Mister Pip. Darcey lived on Bougainville for fifteen years and believes the civil war can be traced back to a single word uttered by the then Australian Minister for Territories C.E.B Barnes. A Bougainvillian asked Barnes what locals could expect to gain from the opening of the Panguna copper mine, Barnes replied, “Nothing”.